Delivered up to the Gentiles: the evil of Satan and man displayed

After this (Matt. 27), the unhappy priests and heads of the
people deliver up their Messiah to the Gentiles, as He had told His
disciples. Judas, in despair under Satan's power, hangs himself,
having cast the reward of his iniquity at the feet of the chief
priests and elders. Satan was forced to bear witness, even by a
conscience that he had betrayed, to the Lord's innocence. What a
scene! Then the priests, who had made no conscience of buying His
blood from Judas, scruple to put the money into the treasury of the
temple, because it was the price of blood. In the presence of that
which was going on, man was obliged to show himself as he is and
the power of Satan over him. Having taken counsel, they buy a
burying-ground for strangers. These were profane enough in their
eyes for that, provided they themselves were not defiled with such
money. Yet it was the time of God's grace to the stranger, and
judgment on Israel. Moreover they established thereby a perpetual
memorial of their own sin, and of the blood which has been
shed. Aceldama is all that remains in this world of the
circumstances of this great sacrifice. The world is a field of
blood, but it speaks better things than that of Abel. This
prophecy, we know, is in the book of Zechariah. The name "Jeremiah"
may have crept into the text when there was nothing more than "by
the prophet"; or it might be because Jeremiah stood first in the
order prescribed by the Talmudists for the books of prophecy; for
which reason, very likely, also, they said, "Jeremiah, or one of
the prophets," as in chapter 16: 14. But this is not the place for
discussion on the subject.

The King of the Jews before Pilate: Pilate's condemnation

Their own part in the Jewish scene closes. The Lord stands
before Pilate. Here the question is not whether He is the Son of
God, but whether He is the King of the Jews. Although He was this,
yet it was only in the character of Son of God that He would allow
the Jews to receive Him. Had they received Him as the Son of God,
He would have been their King. But that might not be: He must
accomplish the work of atonement. Having rejected Him as Son of
God, the Jews now deny Him as their King. But the Gentiles also
become guilty in the person of their head in Palestine, the
government of which had been committed to them. The Gentile head
should have reigned in righteousness. His representative in Judea
acknowledged the malice of Christ's enemies; his conscience,
alarmed by his wife's dream, seeks to evade the guilt of condemning
Jesus. But the true prince of this world, as regards present
exercise of dominion, was Satan. Pilate, washing his hands (futile
attempt to exonerate himself), delivers up the guiltless to the
will of His enemies, saying, at the same time, that he finds no
fault in Him. And he releases to the Jews a man guilty of sedition
and murder, instead of the Prince of life. But it was again on His
own confession, and that only, that He was condemned, confessing
the same thing in the Gentile court as He had done in the Jewish,
in each the truth, witnessing a good confession of what concerned
the truth as to those before whom He was.

The Jew's choice of Barabbas: a rejected Saviour the universal touchstone

Barabbas,* the expression of the spirit of Satan who was a
murderer from the beginning, and of rebellion against the authority
which Pilate was there to maintain -- Barabbas was loved by the
Jews; and with him, the wrongful carelessness of the governor, who
was powerless against evil, endeavoured to satisfy the will of the
people whom he ought to have governed "All the people" make
themselves guilty of the blood of Jesus in the solemn word, which
remains fulfilled to this day, till sovereign grace, according to
God's purpose, takes it off -- solemn but terrible word, "His blood
be upon us and upon our children." Sad and frightful ignorance
which self-will has brought upon a people who rejected the light!
Alas! how each one, I again say, takes his own place in the
presence of this touchstone -- a rejected Saviour. The company of
the Gentiles, the soldiers, do that in derision, with the brutality
habitual to them as heathen and as executioners, which the Gentiles
shall do with joyful worship, when He whom they now mocked shall be
truly the King of the Jews in glory. Jesus endures it all. It was
the hour of His submission to the full power of evil. patience must
have its perfect work, in order that His obedience may be complete
on every side. He bore it all without relief, rather than fail in
obedience to His Father. What a difference between this and the
conduct of the first Adam surrounded with blessings!

{*Strange to say, this means son of Abba, as if Satan was
mocking them with the name.}

The crucifixion, the abyss of His sufferings

Every one must be the servant of sin, or of the tyranny of
wickedness, at this solemn hour, in which all is put to the
proof. They compel one Simon (known afterwards, it appears, among
the disciples) to bear the cross of Jesus; and the Lord is led away
to the place of His crucifixion. There He refuses that which might
have stupefied Him. He will not shun the cup He had to drink, nor
deprive Himself of His faculties in order to be insensible to that
which it was the will of God He should suffer. The prophecies of
the Psalms are fulfilled in His Person, by means of those who
little thought what they were doing. At the same time, the Jews
succeeded in becoming to the last degree contemptible. Their King
was hung. They must bear the shame in spite of themselves. Whose
fault was it? But, hardened and senseless, they share with a
malefactor the miserable satisfaction of insulting the Son of God,
their King, the Messiah, to their own ruin, and quote, so blinding
is unbelief, from their own scriptures, as the expression of their
own mind, that which in them is put into the mouth of the
unbelieving enemies of Jehovah. Jesus felt it all; but the anguish
of His trial, where after all He was a calm and faithful witness,
the abyss of His sufferings, contained something far more terrible
then all this malice or abandonment of man. The floods doubtless
lifted up their voices.* One after another the waves of wickedness
dashed against Him; but the depths beneath that awaited Him, who
could fathom? His heart, His soul -- the vessel of a divine love --
could alone go deeper than the bottom of that abyss which sin had
opened for man, to bring up those who lay there, after He had
endured its pains in His own soul. A heart that had been ever
faithful was forsaken of God. Where sin had brought man, love
brought the Lord, but with a nature and an apprehension in which
there was no distance, no separation, so that it should be felt in
all its fulness. No one but He who was in that place could fathom
or feel it.

{*We find in Matthew, specially collected, the dishonour done
to the Lord and the insults offered Him, and with Mark the
forsaking of God.}

Forsaken of God, glorifying God

It is too a wonderful spectacle to see the one righteous man in
the world declare at the end of His life He was forsaken of
God. But thus it was He glorified Him as none else could have done
it, and where none but He could have done it -- made sin, in the
presence of God as such, with no veil to hide, no mercy to cover or
bear it with. The fathers, full of faith, had in their distress
experienced the faithfulness of God, who answered the expectation
of their hearts. But Jesus (as to the condition of His soul at
that moment) cried in vain. "A worm and no man" before the eyes of
men, He had to bear the forsaking of the God in whom He
trusted. Their thoughts far from His, they that surround Him did
not even understand His words, but they accomplished the prophecies
by their ignorance. Jesus, bearing testimony by the loudness of His
voice that it was not the weight of death that oppressed Him, gives
up the ghost.

The efficacy of Christ's death; the rent vail

The efficacy of His death is presented to us in this Gospel in a
double aspect. First, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from
the top to the bottom. God, who had been always hidden behind the
veil, discovered Himself completely by means of the death of Jesus.
The entrance into the holy place is made manifest -- a new and
living way which God has consecrated for us through the veil. The
entire Jewish system, the relations of man with God under its sway,
its priesthood, all fell with the rending of the veil. Every one
found himself in the presence of God without a veil between. The
priests were to be always in His presence. But, by this same act,
the sin, which would have made it impossible for us to stand there,
was for the believer entirely put away from before God. The holy
God, and the believer, cleansed from his sins, are brought together
by the death of Christ. What love was that which accomplished
this!

Resurrection, sinners without fear before God

Secondly, besides this, such was the efficacy of His death, that
when His resurrection had burst the bonds that held them, many of
the dead appeared in the city -- witnesses of His power who, having
suffered death, had risen above it, and overcome it, and destroyed
its power, or taken it into His own hands. Blessing was now in
resurrection. The presence therefore of God without a veil, and
sinners without sin before Him, prove the efficacy of Christ's
sufferings. The resurrection of the dead, over whom the king of
terrors had no more right, displayed the efficacy of the death of
Christ for sinners, and the power of His resurrection. Judaism is
over for those that have faith, and the power of death also. The
veil is rent. The grave gives up its prey; He is Lord of the dead
and of the living.*

{*The glory of Christ in ascension, and as Lord of all, does
not come within the scope of Matthew historically.}

The first testimony of faith among the Gentiles to the Person of Christ

There is yet another especial testimony to the mighty power of
His death, to the import of that word, "If I be lifted up from the
earth, I will draw all men unto me." The centurion who was on guard
at the crucifixion of the Lord, seeing the earthquake and those
things that were done, trembling, confesses the glory of His
Person; and, stranger as he is to Israel, renders the first
testimony of faith among Gentiles: "Truly this was the Son of
God."

The instinct of affection at the foot of the cross

But the narrative goes on. Some poor women -- to whom
devotedness often gives, on God's part, more courage than to men in
their more responsible and busy position -- were standing near the
cross, beholding what was done to Him they loved.*

{*The part that women take in all this history is very
instructive, especially to them. The activity of public service,
that which may be called "work," belongs naturally to men (all that
appertains to what is generally termed ministry), although women
share a very precious activity in private. But there is another
side of christian life which is particularly theirs; and that is
personal and loving devotedness to Christ. It is a woman, who
anointed the Lord while the disciples murmured; women, who were at
the cross, when all except John had forsaken Him; women, who came
to the sepulchre, and who were sent to announce the truth to the
apostles who had gone after all to their own home; women, who
ministered to the Lord's need. And indeed this goes
farther. Devotedness in service is perhaps the part of man; but the
instinct of affection, that which enters more intimately into
Christ's position, and is thus more immediately in connection with
His sentiments, in closer communion with the sufferings of His
heart -- this is the part of woman: assuredly a happy part. The
activity of service for Christ puts man a little out of this
position, at least if the Christian is not watchful. Everything has
however its place. I speak of that which is characteristic; for
there are women who have served much, and men who have felt
much. Note also here, what I believe I have remarked, that this
clinging of heart to Jesus is the position where the communications
of true knowledge are received. The first full gospel is announced
to the poor woman that was a sinner who washed His feet, the
embalming for His death to Mary, our highest position to Mary
Magdalene, the communion Peter desired to John who was in His
bosom. And here the women have a large share.} But they were not
the only ones who filled the place of the terrified disciples.
Others -- and this often happens -- whom the world had held back,
when once the depth of their affection is stirred by the question
of His sufferings whom they really loved, when the moment is so
painful that others are terrified, then (emboldened by the
rejection of Christ) they feel that the time is arrived for
decision and become fearless confessors of the Lord. Hitherto
associated with those that have crucified Him, they must now either
accept that act, or declare themselves. Through grace they do the
latter.

'With the rich in His death'

God had prepared all beforehand. His Son was to have His tomb
with the rich. Joseph comes boldly to Pilate and asks for the body
of Jesus. He wraps the body, which Pilate grants him, in a clean
linen cloth, and lays it in his own sepulchre, which had never
served to hide the corruption of man. Mary Magdalene and the other
Mary* -- for they were known -- sat near the sepulchre, bound by
all that remained to their faith of Him whom they had loved and
followed with adoration during His life.

{*That is, Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and mother of James and
Joses, constantly spoken of as "the other Mary." In John 19: 25,
Mary the wife of Cleophas has been taken as in apposition with His
mother's sister. But this is simply a mistake. It is another
person. There were four -- three Marys and His mother's
sister.}

The involuntary witness of unbelief

But unbelief has no faith in itself, and, fearing lest that
which it denies be true, it mistrusts everything. The chief priests
request Pilate to guard the sepulchre, in order to frustrate any
attempt the disciples might make to found the doctrine of the
resurrection on the absence of the body of Jesus from the tomb in
which it had been laid. Pilate bids them secure the sepulchre
themselves; so that all they did was to make themselves involuntary
witnesses to the fact, and assure us of the accomplishment of the
thing they dreaded. Thus Israel was guilty of this effort of
futile resistance to the testimony which Jesus had rendered to His
own resurrection. They were a testimony against themselves to its
truth. The precautions which Pilate would not perhaps have taken
they carried to the extreme, so that all mistake as to the fact of
His resurrection was impossible.

Jesus' ministry and service still with the poor of the flock

The Lord's resurrection is briefly related in Matthew. The
object is again, after the resurrection, to connect the ministry
and service of Jesus -- now transferred to His disciples -- with
the poor of the flock, the remnant of Israel. He again assembled
them in Galilee, where He had constantly instructed them, and where
the despised among the people dwelt afar from the pride of the
Jews. This connected their work with His, in that which especially
characterised it with reference to the remnant of Israel.